;;------------------------------------------------------
;; NCL function for string utils 
;; Kai Zhang, MPI-M  
;;------------------------------------------------------


;;------------------------------------------------------
;; print the string in a nice way  
;;------------------------------------------------------
  undef("strnice")
  function strnice(str,nc)
  begin

   string_len = sizeof(stringtochar(str)) - 1
 
   nstr = str 

   if (string_len.lt.nc) then

   do it = 0, nc - string_len - 2 
      nstr = nstr + " "
   end do
 
   end if
 
  return(nstr)
  end

;;------------------------------------------------------
;; print a double quote 
;;------------------------------------------------------
  undef("dblquote")
  function dblquote(idebug)
  begin
   aa = integertochar(34) 
  return(aa)
  end

